Mandarin Chinese and That is One Reason You Should Learn!

“Speaking the language confers a huge advantage for anyone who wants to do business in a non-English-speaking country,” he said. “It gives you flexibility, knowledge that you need, and personal connections that can make a difference in the speed and effectiveness of your negotiations.” – Leigh Hafrey, a senior lecturer in communications and ethics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.

So why learn Mandarin Chinese?

The article tells us:

Mandarin, spoken by 845 million people, scored highest in a ranking of languages, excluding English, based on business usefulness. The ranking scored languages according to the number of speakers, number of countries where the language is official, along with those nations’ populations, financial power, educational and literacy rates, and related measures.

But Mandarin is hard!

Actually, learning Mandarin Chinese is not that hard. Yes, there are a lot of characters, but you don’t need to know that many and you certainly don’t need to know them all. Yes there are tones and they change the meaning, but almost all of the time, the meaning of a word is clear from the context. As one of our student’s found out, you don’t need to master the language to reap the benefits:

Nonetheless, I found very quickly that, even with the most rudimentary Mandarin skills, my understanding of culture, custom and conversation, and my relationships with friends and partners in China improved exponentially. – Geoff O’Keeffe, Vice-President, Global Sourcing, American Recreation Products, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Learning at a University is Boring

I took German at a University. It wasn’t horribly boring, but the classes were large and moved at the pace of a University. I learned what I did because I studied really, really hard. I didn’t get a ton out of the classes and the instructor certainly didn’t push me every week.

Learn Mandarin Chinese in a Small Group Environment

Our school is located in Broomfield, Colorado. Our group classes are reasonable in terms of cost and range in size from 4 to 6 students. If you want to maximize your progress and have the complete attention of the instructor, you can take private lessons. You will learn Mandarin from a trained, experienced instructor who is also a native speaker. We offer a Free Introductory Class if you contact us here.